How can medical educators become better leaders?

ICRE recently connected with Dr. Jonas Nordquist from Stockholm’s Karolinska Instituet around the challenges medical educators face improving their leadership skills. Dr. Nordquist will help lead the ICRE workshop,“Leadership in education”.

What are some of the common mistakes and misconceptions medical educators have around developing leadership skills?

There is often a too strong focus on simple solutions and the framing of a problem is often neglected. To consider a challenge as a technical matter is often less painful and demanding that to see its (often) adoptive nature. I am also amazed about the oversimplification many educational leaders tend to have of the implementation process. My experience from around the world is that educational leaders needs to become much more aware of the importance of framing an issue or challenge, and to have a proper understanding of the policy process, including implementation.

Recognizing that ICRE is months away, what are some of the themes this session will explore?

Implementation of educational change: why it is so difficult to implement. We will focus on understanding the policy process in order to create implementation strategies. People attending this workshop will have a better understanding of the policy process and given this understanding, be better equipped to create implementation strategies.

How can a political analysis or cultural analysis improve leadership?

You have to understand in what context an educational initiative is embedded; every organization stores histories of super-heroes and scoundrels, victims and previous successes and failures of leaders. One of the most common mistakes a new leader makes, that often result in failure, is to ignore the culture in an organization. Hence, awareness and ways to analyse organizational culture is critical for any successful leadership. Also many educational leaders are surprised about the level of “politics” involved in any part of an organization. This is because organizations are political, and will always be. In order to be effective as an educational leader, you have to train your understanding of the political game and the political process, to create adequate strategies in relation to your objectives and vision.

Leading effective teams is a perennial leadership challenge. Are there any practical tips or techniques that may benefit educators?

You have to identify and understand the interest and frame of reference for the other professions you are dealing with (this is based on the assumption that most teams are interprofessional). All professions have their own agendas and the analytical concepts of interestand agendas are central to interprofessional communication and for that matter, educational leadership in general. These two concepts, interest and agendas, will be addressed in the workshop.

Self-awareness and reflection are important for leadership development. How can educators improve these crucial domains?

To understand you own educational philosophy or your educational frame of reference is absolutely central in order to improve your own learning and teaching skills. The same applies of course to educational leadership. It is central to extend the perspectives an individual have on learning; to show and confront the person with different ways to understand learning. Given these perspectives it becomes easier for the individual to position himself, and perhaps to express and articulate, his or her own educational philosophy. Once better aware of where he or she is coming from it becomes much easier to elaborate and improve. It’s all about surfacing hidden and underlying assumptions.